blatherskite

Noun

blatherskite (countable and uncountable, plural blatherskites)

1. A voluble purveyor of nonsense; a blusterer.
   • She never had any ideas, any more than a fog has. She was a perfect blatherskite; I mean for jaw, jaw, jaw, talk, talk, talk, jabber, jabber, jabber; but just as good as she could be.1889, Mark Twain, “Slow Torture”, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, New York: Charles L. Webster & Company
   • Babbitt was frightened, but he had an agonized instinct that if he yielded in this he would yield in everything. He protested: “You're exaggerating, Colonel. I believe in being broad-minded and liberal, but, of course, I'm just as much agin the cranks and blatherskites and labor unions and so on as...1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 32, in Babbitt

   Synonyms:

   bloviator, windbag, airbag, babblemouth, babbler, bag of wind, blab, blabberer, blatherer, blabbermouth

2. A worthless fellow; a deadbeat.
   • Who social circle ape to lead, / Without the solid requisite; / Where high pretension is the creed, / And every look betrays the breed; / Avaunt, ye vulgar blatherskite.1872, Levi Bishop, “Blatherskite”, in Teuchsa Grondie: A Legendary Poem, 2nd edition, Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, pages 546–547
   • When that man there, Bruce Dunlap, had most worried the life and sense out of Uncle Silas till at last he plumb lost his mind and hit this other blatherskite, his brother, with a club, I reckon he seen his chance.1896, Mark Twain, “Tom Sawyer Discovers the Murderers”, in Tom Sawyer, Detective

   Synonyms:

   good-for-nothing, punk, absolute zero, assbucket, asswipe, badling, bugger, carrion, cipher, cockstain

3. Nonsense or blather; empty talk.
   • Now such a state of affairs as that is unknown in England. To print this statement is to expose ourselves there to the suspicion of blatherskite and exaggeration.1894 February, “English and American Theories”, in Lend a Hand, volume 12, number 2, Boston: J. Stilman Smith & Co, page 88

   Synonyms:

   drivel, poppycock, absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls